Lies
by Mary 'Scout' Williams
Summary: The writer of "Naruto" seems to have left out some important characters, organizations, and events. My job is to enlighten you - to tell the truth behind those Lies.


"Kakashi-sensei's late…again."

"So? What else is new?"

"Urgh! Every time that jerk calls us out, he shows up four hours late. Some elite jonin if he can't tell time."

"What do you think he called us here for, anyway?"

"Something stupid, I bet. He probably just wanted to irritate us by making us wait like this, dattebayo."

"It wouldn't be so irritating if you would just shut up."

Uzumaki Naruto glared with a snarl at his male teammate. The orange light of the setting sun matched his jumpsuit and turned his blond hair a golden hue. The Leaf headband on his forehead flashed the sun's rays as he turned to set the other boy in a glare. "If you ask me, I'd say you're the one making this irritating, Sasuke!"

Uchiha Sasuke inclined his head and closed his onyx eyes. His mouth hidden by the tall, wide collar of his shirt, one could still clearly hear the annoyance in his voice without looking for his expression.

"I'm not the one screaming at the top of my lungs like a child, dunce." Naruto took a step towards him, fist raised, as threatening as a rooster flapping its wings at a garden gnome.

"You wanna see how hard this 'child' can hit-ttebayo?" he snapped.

"Leave Sasuke-kun alone." Naruto flinched and looked to Sasuke's left. A girl with long pink hair was glaring daggers at him. She was staring him down the an intensity usually reserved for a wild animal. Naruto knew that look well. And knowing that look meant also knowing what would happen if he disobeyed.

"S…Sakura-chan…." Naruto sighed unhappily and sat back against the railing.

Naruto was thirteen-years-old, a genin in Konohagakure no Sato. He belonged to a three-man cell called Team 7, comprised of himself, his love interest Haruno Sakura, and his rival for both her affection and overall strength, Uchiha Sasuke. The trio had already been through hell and back since graduating for Konoha's ninja academy. And yet, Sasuke and Sakura still saw Naruto as nothing but a nuisance, a loud-mouthed brat, a talent-less nobody.

_I thought that after the whole Zabuza and Haku thing back in Nami no Kuni, they'd actually think of me as a shinobi…but all Sakura-chan notices is Sasuke, and Sasuke doesn't seem to care one bit. Nothing's changed-ttebayo._

Wind blew from Naruto's back and played with the genins' hair and clothes. It was evening, their daily D-rank over, done, and nearly forgotten. The crows cawed out to nothing as they roosted, and the ginger light behind Naruto made the three's shadows stretch comically. The water flowing beneath the small red bridge they stood on trickled, muted and solemn.

Uncomfortable with the silence and his own negative thoughts, Naruto folded his arms into a pout. "What could be so important that the bum comes atrociously late, anyway?"

"Who's a bum?"

Naruto wailed and sprang between his teammates across the bridge, and turned to see who'd frightened him.

Hatake Kakashi crouched on the railing like a monkey rather than a man in his late twenties. One's first impression of him might be that he'd rolled out of bed and onto the bridge not a minute ago, but his wind-swept hair, drooping eye, and flat tone were simply part of Kakashi's personality no matter his state of consciousness. He raised his hand in a friendly wave.

"Yo!"

"You're late," Sakura said, her frown not changing his cheery demeanor.

"Ah, gomen ne. A pretty talent scout wanted to interview me for a lead roll in a movie…."

"Liar!" Naruto and Sakura chimed accusingly.

Sasuke shrugged off the railing to stand away from his teammates with quiet irritation. He pocketed his hands with a hard stare at his teacher. "Look, training's over for today, and we've already done our mission. Why did you call us out?"

Kakashi stepped down onto the bridge. His presence was abruptly as cool and collected as Sasuke's. "Right. I know it's a bit last-minute, but Hokage-sama has assigned an extra mission for the three of you."

Naruto went from fuming to ecstatic. "A mission? Really? All right!" he whooped. He pointed at Sasuke. "Just you wait. This time, I'll be the one saving your sorry ass-ttebayo."

Kakashi sighed, his loud student having sucked his will to live yet again. "It's only C-rank, Naruto. No need to get so excited."

"What? Aw, c'mon."

"Shut up and let the man talk, baka," Sakura said, bringing an elbow down on Naruto's spiky skull. He yelped and rubbed the knot on his head but whined no further. He liked Sakura, but when it came to her anger, the fair genin got very violent, very fast. Naruto happened to be her favorite punching bag, so to save a black eye, he kept his trap shut.

"Thanks," Kakashi said. He straightened, making the three genin draw their attention to his rare sober expression. "The mission Sandaime-sama has assigned you is scouting. Three citizens have gone missing over the span of two days. All have been blond girls from 10 to 13 years old, and the way that they vanished makes Hokage-sama think that a shinobi is involved. Also, one of the missing girl's brother, who was the only person to see any of them kidnapped, reported spotting what he said was a 'large white animal' where his sister had been taken. We have no motive for the kidnappings, except that the same boy overheard his sister's conversation with the kidnapper. The perpetrator was asking her where a 'Sukoshi Kiba' was."

"Did he see the kidnapper?" Sasuke asked.

"No, he heard the exchange from afar. We don't know who's doing this or what they look like. However, all your job requires is that you search the Leaf's surrounding forest for the missing girls, the kidnapper, or the large white animal. No jumping in or performing heroics - this person could be dangerous. So try to keep your excitement under control, please, Naruto."

Naruto had been staring blankly at his sensei the whole briefing, but now he twitched. "Why are you singling _me_ out?"

"Because your reckless ways could jeopardize the mission," Sasuke said absently.

Naruto bristled. "What'd you say?"

"You got all that?" Kakashi said, directing Sakura.

"Three blond girls, a person searching for a 'Sukoshi Kiba', and a big white animal," Sakura nodded dutifully. She inwardly rolled her eyes at her quarreling teammates.

Sasuke was an elite prodigy from the Uchiha clan, as well as its last surviving member. He had gotten top grades at the ninja academy, and was sought after by nearly every young kunoichi in Konoha - not only for his masterful skill, but also for his striking good looks. Sakura was proud to say that she was one such kunoichi. Being on Sasuke's team, she had more than enough excuse to talk to the dark-haired stud every day.

Naruto, on the other hand, was a different story. He'd failed the final test at the academy three times, thanks to his frequent naps and skipping classes. He was as dumb as a rock, as stubborn as an ox, and had the attention span of a cocker spaniel. Both loud-mouthed and ridiculous. The complete opposite of the suave lady-killer that was Uchiha Sasuke.

It was only natural that these polar opposites would clash, but lately, the tension around them had gotten even more destructive. Sakura almost wondered if it was worth two minutes of her Sasuke's time if it meant he'd fight with Naruto for the rest of the day.

Now Kakashi smiled, satisfied. "Well then, I'm off." He waved as he strolled towards the village.

Sakura snapped out of her wonderings and into a heart attack. "Wha- Kakashi-sensei! Where are you going?" Naruto and Sasuke stopped to look at their retreating sensei questioningly.

"Oh, I guess I forgot to mention," Kakashi mused, turning back to his team. "You'll be doing this mission on your own. Sasuke will act as leader. I have to go…save a burning orphanage." He made a single handsign. "Ja ne!" In a plume of smoke, the jonin had shirked yet another of his many responsibilities.

Presently Naruto became aware of Sasuke's presence and glared at him; Sasuke, being about as masculine, glared back. Sakura held in a sigh. _Let's get this over with._

**Number One: Ambushed!**

The sun was gone from the sky, and being under a canopy of trees, it'd been gone three hours beforehand. Now the setting of a forest at daytime was replaced with the whirring of insects, and the croaking of toads peeking from the leaf litter to eat them. One toad almost shot its tongue at a cicada when a swift shadow glided from above, making both creatures bolt in fear of a predator. The silhouette, however, was far from one.

"Did I mention how badly this sucks?" Naruto said. He sprang from branch to branch through the sycamores and oaks. It was so dark he could hardly see ten feet in front of him. He was amazed that he hadn't tripped or smacked into a tree yet.

"Did I mention that you should shut your mouth?" Sasuke retorted, landing on a low-hanging branch across the forest from his male teammate. They communicated with wireless radios strapped to their necks. There was a piece in their left ears to hear, and a formable wire near their mouths to speak. Sasuke wished Naruto would tear his mouth-piece off. "Sakura, find anything?"

Sakura glanced around where she combed the forest floor for clues. "Nothing, all's quiet here."

Sasuke frowned. "We've searched half the forest and still no signs of anything? …No wonder three people are missing and there's still no suspect."

"This is taking too long," Naruto said. He leapt from a branch, caught a higher one, and swung himself to another in a rolling motion. Despite his clumsy antics on solid ground, Naruto was surprisingly agile while performing such ninja tasks. "Why can't I use Kage Bunshin and spread out all over the place?"

"And let one hundred idiots tromp through the forest and warn the enemy we're looking for them? I don't want this mission to fail because the kidnapper cut and ran," Sasuke said.

Naruto grabbed at his headset as if grabbing at Sasuke himself. "Don't get all high and mighty with me. It'd be easier to flush him out instead of being stopped at a dead crawl."

"Maybe if you actually paid attention we could have found something by now."

"I don't hear you bragging about a find, so don't tell me I'm not paying attention."

"Stop shouting into the radio, dunce."

"I'll shout however I want-ttebayo!"

"Cool it, guys," Sakura said. She wanted to throw away her comm. link, they were so loud. "Naruto, turn off your radio so we don't have to hear you whining all the time."

Naruto faltered, about to defend himself, but he didn't. He sighed moodily. "Fine…" He stopped on a branch to turn the device on his neck off, but he unthinkingly skipped the 'off' position on the dial and stopped on a different frequency instead. It wasn't being used so he didn't recognize the difference.

Sakura shook her head after a courtesy pause to make sure Naruto really wasn't there anymore. It'd used to be so much easier. During the mission with Tazuna the bridge builder, Naruto and Sasuke had shown ample teamwork. They'd fought like a well-oiled machine, hardly ever discussing their strategy. Somehow, the two of them just knew. Now, however, back in Konoha, they'd done a 180 and couldn't look at each other without starting an argument.

"Constant fighting, day after day," she sighed. "Will it ever end?"

"It's the dunce's fault," Sasuke muttered. Sakura had forgotten he could hear her.

"Oh! I mean, of course it isn't your fault, Sasuke-kun," Sakura gasped, flustered. "You're great. I just, uh, umm-"

The bushes next to her shuddered, and when she turned that way she was struck in the back of the head. Her communicator was knocked off from the blow. She cried out and fell. She pulled out a kunai and got to her feet, searching for an attacker.

In another flash - a fleeting shadow - the knife was snatched from Sakura. Something coiled up her legs and pinned down her arms. She screamed as she was pulled feet-first into the trees by a black rope.

Before Sakura could attempt to escape, she felt something sharp stab her neck. The break of her skin spawned a tidal wave of black over her brain. Her eyes fixed numbly on her communicator, twenty feet below her, abandoned on the forest floor.

Sasuke's voice was crackling from the set. "Sakura? Are you there? Sa-" A black boot stepped hard on the earpiece and scrunched it up, turning Sasuke's voice into nothing but blips of high-pitched noise and static.

Sakura blacked out.

* * *

><p>Ten minutes went by without incident. A yawn forced Naruto's mouth open and his eyes to tear up. It was getting late, and even the energy-plentiful genin was feeling exhaustion setting in. Now, he even tripped on an uneven niche in a branch he was leaping from.<p>

"Whoa!" Naruto had to somersault into a crouch on the ground to prevent injury. His sigh was both relieved and defeated. "I'm totally beat. Shadow clones definitely would have been a good idea." He reached for the dial of his radio.

"Kuya, I got another one. This time it's definitely Sukoshi Kiba's!"

Naruto blinked. _Sukoshi…? Wait, Kakashi-sensei said something about a Little Fang earlier. _He flattened himself to the bed of dead leaves left over from last autumn and made a military crawl for the voices. He peeked out from under a bush furtively.

Two men were in the clearing, both of similar height and build, sporting shinobi clothing but no village headbands. The man furthest away held someone short with a bag over their head like a prisoner. The person was kicking in the man's grasp.

"Let me go, ya gorilla! I swear, if you don't take this thing off me right now, you'll regret it!" Behind the threatening tone Naruto knew it was a girl. Albeit, an enraged girl.

"Hideaki, this is the fourth girl in two days," Kuya said. "You can't pick up every snot-nosed blond and expect her to be the right brat." His jowl turned into a harsh frown and, indeed, it made him look like a gorilla.

Hideaki looked miffed. "It isn't my fault the kids said they knew a Kiba and it turned out to be some other guy from the Leaf. They should have known the difference between the Sukoshi Kiba and just plain Kiba."

The girl repeated the name quietly. "…I'm gonna kill 'im," she said abruptly. "That neko-boy is _so_ dead. He got me kidnapped twice. So dead."

Naruto frowned judgingly. _Neko-boy? And she's been kidnapped twice now?_

"You know Sukoshi Kiba," Kuya said, tensing with urgency.

"See? I told you, she's his apprentice." Hideaki was giddy - his perception had finally been right on the mark.

Kuya approached Hideaki and the girl, withdrawing a kunai. "Brat-type, here's the deal: you're going to tell us exactly where the Gokira scumbag is, or I draw a big red grin across your neck."

The girl froze, sensing the same killing-intent as Naruto. He sucked in his breath. _Yikes, this ain't good, dattebayo._

* * *

><p>Sasuke halted when his earpiece went berserk and nearly blew his eardrums out. He tapped on the round device. "Sakura? Sakura?" He made a noise of irritation and dropped from the trees.<p>

Sasuke considered the situation. Sakura could have gone out of range. Unlikely. She might have switched hers off accidentally. Doubtful. Either of their radios malfunctioned. Plausible. Sakura was being attacked….

He turned the dial on his communicator, sailing through the frequencies for anything odd. A hushed voice stopped his search, and he turned up the volume to hear better. He frowned when he recognized who the voice belonged to.

"This ain't good. That's it, I can't just sit here. Kage Bunshin no Juts-"

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto screamed at the sudden, booming voice that pierced his brain. He writhed as the pain slowly ebbed. "Sasuke?"

Kuya whipped his head toward the shout. Hideaki was trying to hold onto the girl, who had recovered from her fear quickly.

"I told you, I haven't seen him in months, and he didn't tell me where he was going," she yelled. "He doesn't know where I am either, so holding me hostage won't do any good. So let. Me. Go!"

"You're lying," Hideaki said. "You and that assassin are attached at the hip."

"I haven't seen him, I tell ya!"

"Shut up, both of you," Kuya said. "Hideaki, you were followed."

Hideaki went as blue as his hair. "I wasn't. I made absolutely sure. It's the kid, she must have called for help somehow."

"Really? How," she demanded, angered that she was being blamed, for reasons no one could perceive.

Naruto growled. "Great. Thanks, you stupid bastard, they spotted me."

"They?" Sasuke echoed. He'd adjusted his volume back to normal. "Where are you? I'll be there in a minute."

Naruto squinted his eyes and threw his communicator into some brush. "Let's see you get here in a minute," he huffed.

The two men's eyes locked onto Naruto as he jumped into their sight in the clearing. "Let her go, or I'll pummel you into the dirt," he said with his usual gusto.

Kuya was not amused. Hideaki looked thoughtful. "Kuya, is that a boy or a girl? I mean…the kid acts wild and has the hair and eyes, like boss said."

A vein popped up on Naruto's neck. "I'm a guy, idiot! Don't accuse people of being girls at random like that!"

"Hideaki, we already have the kid. Check your hands - you're the one holding her," Kuya said with derision. Hideaki wilted at his comrade's anger and his own stupidity. "We'll take the girl, and contact her little pack. They could probably find Sukoshi Kiba for us. As for this one, he's Konoha trash. He's in the way."

Naruto barely winced at the darkened tone before performing some handsigns. "And I won't be getting out of it anytime soon," he said, determined.

Kuya drew the sword on his back. Then, abruptly, he cried out and was sent face-first into the grass. Naruto blinked at Kuya, lying motionless.

"Kuya?" Hideaki gaped as the girl he held lowered her leg from a kick. She threw her head back and caught Hideaki in the nose. He growled and threw her on the ground, hard. The girl tugged frantically at the bag on her head while blindly trying to hold her defense.

Naruto jumped in before Hideaki could bring his foot down on her. Hideaki caught Naruto's arm before injury was inflicted and threw him away. Then the man made swift handsigns. "Ninpou: Hitei Mushou!" He sucked in his breath before letting it out, dozens of tiny needles forming from his expelled air. They sped rapidly towards Naruto.

Several hit home only to make Naruto burst into smoke. Hideaki had but a moment to look around when the girl at his feet twisted her legs with his' and brought him down with her. She got a punch to his cheekbone, but he grabbed her and twisted her arm, pressing her head to the ground.

"Uff!" Hideaki was knocked off of the girl by two Narutos. A third brought the girl to her feet and away from the tussle.

"Help me get this off," she said. Naruto tore at the bag as she did; his clones were deftly defeated, and Hideaki sent more of the nail mist at the two. Naruto hurriedly stepped forward and took four small spears to the abdomen for the girl. Instead of blood, smoke erupted from the wounds, and Naruto vanished with a pop. The girl wrenched at the head cover with a new desperation.

Hideaki cursed shadow clones. Half a second later, he was sucker-punched by one. A pair of clones hurried over to the girl. "Hold still," one told her as the other took a knife to the bag.

Naruto winced as one of his copies got nailed, literally, to a tree. Hideaki managed to escape the one-man army, tossing a smoke bomb in his wake, and after choking on smog Naruto realized that the rogue ninja had fled.

"Dammit! He got away."

His clones exploded softly into nothingness, including the two helping the girl. She ripped the bag open from the tear they'd made and threw it away with distinct dejection. "Thanks." She paused. "However random that rescue was, thanks."

"No problem, it was my mission," Naruto as he turned to face her. She was blond and blue-eyed like Kakashi had described, but her slighter stature and voice were his only indications that she was female - she wasn't yet at the age where her body could exaggerate her gender properly, but her baggy clothing wasn't helping her, either. Her hair was wild from the bag squashing it, but her eyes held no animosity. "Anyway, I'm surprised you knew how to fight. Are you training to be a ninja or something?"

So much for no animosity. She narrowed her eyes into a squint. "No way in hell. Shinobi suck." Naruto went from grinning to something similar to being punched in the groin. This quickly turned to anger.

"You ungrateful- I just saved your butt, and you turn around and diss me?"

"Like I said, thanks, but I hate ninja," the girl said, crossing her arms defiantly. Naruto's eyebrow twitched.

"What a brat…."

"What're you doin' out here anyway? Aren't you guys supposed to travel in teams or whatever?" she asked.

Naruto grimaced at his predicament. "I was. We were out on a scouting mission looking for you and the other missing girls."

"Other missing girls?"

"Yeah. Haven't you seen them?" Naruto asked when the girl blinked in befuddlement.

She shook her head. "Far as I know, that blue-headed jerk snatched me while I was gettin' food for Kou-chan. That was, say, an hour ago." The girl remembered something. "I better get going - everybody's gotta be worried. 'Cept Gina. She's probably giddy to be rid of me," she mused with a scowl.

Naruto laughed a little. "Big family, huh? Well, actually, maybe you shouldn't go home yet. That blue-haired guy's still out there. Maybe we should find Sasuke and Sakura-chan and see if we can't beat this creep. Ah, those are my teammates-ttebayo," he pointed out.

The girl looked dubious. "Nah, I don't wanna hang out with shinobi. 'Sides, me and my sibs are pretty tough, we can handle ourselves."

"Like you did earlier?" This earned Naruto a glare. "Look, we just gotta make sure nobody goes disappearing again, including you. It's my mission."

"Some mission." The girl thumbed her nose, trying to be defiant, but she knew the argument was stacked in Naruto's favor drastically. "I don't wanna be involved with people like you. I'm not exactly on the same side."

"Side? Like, are you rogue ninja or something?"

"Quit grouping me with ninja!" she snapped. "I may not be part of it, but my best friend is an assassin. He'd skin me alive if he knew I was consorting with shinobi and anything to do with them. So, leave me alone, and I'll just forget I ever met ya."

Naruto's annoyance flared to a new height. "I don't care if your best friend is the meanest anti-ninja powerhouse ever, I'm not gonna fail my mission just 'cause you've got preferences," he declared.

"You're gonna fail your mission 'cause I'm about to beat the living daylights out of ya here in a second," she shot back.

"Bring it, dattebayo," Naruto said, and gestured her to come at him.

**-Roll Credits-**

{By the end of this some of you might know where this is going. To those people, humor me? I swear it's not as Mary-Sue as it sounds! I've been developing these characters for YEARS, weeding out the Sue and pruning their personalities. [Believe me. These characters of mine were so Mary-Sue when I first started writing in eighth grade. *hides in Mr. Corner (my depression corner)* Sooo Mary-Sueeee.] Like I said, if you're turned off from the story by that singular fact in here…I won't force you to read it, but…*watery alien eyes*}


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